


Tempus Fugit

by Captain_Revo



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen, Post-Season/Series 07 Finale, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-09-30 18:44:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20451815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Revo/pseuds/Captain_Revo
Summary: Admiral Janeway must team with Captain Ducane from the 29th century to once again confront Annorax, who threatens to unravel history.





	Tempus Fugit

She had done it! The seemingly impossible task of bringing _Voyager_ back home safely, was now a reality. Kathryn Janeway had completed the daunting seventy-five year journey in one tenth of the time. Starfleet Command was so impressed with her accomplishments they had made her an Admiral, and after the longest away mission in history, she had gratefully accepted.

The data she had brought back on the Delta Quadrant, and its many inhabitants, would keep Federation scientists, scholars, and xenoanthropologists busy for decades. The new technology such as ablative armour generators, transphasic torpedoes, and specs on slipstream and transwarp propulsion had Starfleet engineers drooling with excitement. What had seemed like a nightmare for her seven years ago being pulled into the far reaches of the galaxy, had turned into the most rewarding and fruitful mission she could have ever asked for. The family she had made aboard the Intrepid lass ship would be with her for life. 

For good measure, she had even dealt a crippling blow to the Borg on their way home. The Queen's Unicomplex was destroyed, as was one of their transwarp hubs. It could take the Borg decades to recover, and give the species of the galaxy time to rebuild and develop new defences.

She was a hero. Her name was spoken in the same reverence as legends such as Archer, Pike, Kirk, and Garrett, yet she had a gnawing feeling in pit of her stomach. To complete her task her future self had travelled back in time to aid her. By returning _Voyager_ to Earth now instead of another sixteen years as her future self had warned, she had dramatically changed the timeline, not just for her crew, but for much of the galaxy. Anyone who ever heard the name _Voyager_ or felt the consequences of their actions were now living in a different time. How many people were alive that should not be, how many where dead that should have lived. Temporal causality always gave her a headache, but she had never been involved in something so far reaching, and the prospect a temporal agent was going to swoop in and undo what had been accomplished kept her awake more than once.

But over the weeks and months she began to think less of it as she became more accustomed to life back in Federation space. If they were going to fix the timeline then they would have done it by now she thought to herself. After all, they were time travellers. 

Her friend Chakotay, along with the rest of the Maquis, had been pardoned for unwavering bravery in the face of exceptional circumstances, and the loyalty shown to Janeway and Starfleet's mission over the past seven years. At her request he had been promoted to Captain, and was overseeing the refit of _Voyager_ to be put it back into service. She was about to leave her office to go have lunch with him when she suddenly without warning she found herself in both a strange, yet familiar setting. A man walked up to her wearing a futuristic Starfleet uniform.

"Hello, Admiral." said Captain Ducane of the time ship, _U.S.S. Relativity._

She looked around to make sure she was not dreaming before blurting out, "Oh no, not you again."

A faint smile crept at the corners of his mouth, "It's good to see you again as well."

She gathered herself and her manners, "My apologies Lieutenant. You'll forgive me if I'm a little startled."

"Yes, sorry about this. There really is no way to prepare you for time teleportation. And it's Captain now. I have assumed command after Braxton's... unfortunate behaviour."

"Congratulations, given the circumstances" she offered, somewhat weakly, "forgive me for not being overjoyed to see you but I had wondered when you or someone like you would show up."

"You are no doubt referring to the incident with getting _Voyager_ home early?" You can relax, Admiral. The outcome of that temporal event has always been part of our history, and we only fix aberrations of this current timeline," he said, already seeing the confused expression on her face. "You see, when we first built the timefleet, certain temporal events had already occurred in our past and your future self's little journey was already part of our history. It is our job to stop future changes. It's a bit arbitrary where to draw the line, but it's the best we can do."

Janeway could already feel the headache coming on. She raised her hands before replying, "Don't apologise, I'll take it. So why am I here?"

"We have a new problem."

She let out an audible sigh. "It's a big galaxy, couldn't you find someone other than me?"

"This task is eminently suited to your talents," he said walking over to his console. He began to bring up some data. Janeway wandered over to him. An adjacent console had various locations and dates listed along a timeline on a side screen. San Francisco - 1986, Bozeman Montana** \- **2063, Paraagan II - 2151, Zhal Prime - 2374, Procyon V - 2550, Terralysium - 3186. He saw her looking and quickly deactivated the screen. He brought up another display.

"This is what you're after."

Janeway looked at a face of a man she did not recognise, but she did remember the species from about four years ago. They lived in the Delta Quadrant and were involved in a minor territory dispute. It had seemed unimportant at the time. 

"I vaguely remember the species, but I don't know this man."

"You do, or at least you did," he said, correcting her. "His name is Annorax. He is a Krenim scientist responsible for creating a super weapon that could manipulate time to a very accurate degree, even down the molecular level. He had been trying to restore his race to power after making a fateful error. Using his time ship he had been manipulating time for over two hundred years. Your ship had a run in with him for nearly a year, before you destroyed his ship resetting time to a place where he never built it."

She blinked several times at the prospect of an entire year she knew nothing about, "Glad to know we won," she replied drily, "So what's the problem?"

"Back in the 22nd Century a Borg ship was passing by Kyana Prime, where his wife lived. She was on a transport ship returning home when it was attacked and assimilated. He sought to change the timeline and restore her, much like before, even though he also had no memory of those events. He continued his work down a slightly different path and built a new version of the temporal weapon ship."

Time had not been kind to Annorax. Ducane had noticed his original mistake in the now defunct time had seen his efforts to restore Kyana Prime result in constant failure. Annorax believed that time was against him. That it was angry at him. Most people would dismiss this as the ramblings of a madman wrecked by guilt, grief and possibly some form of temporal psychosis, but Duncane had seen a lot in his service aboard Relativity, and it was hard to argue that certain events seemed more than just coincidence. Did some great intelligence control time and space like the ancient myths claimed, or did humanity just look for patterns and take comfort in believing what reaffirmed their beliefs, he could not answer, but time was not something to manipulate lightly. 

He continued, "Vowing revenge he plans to use his weapon to erase the Borg from history."

Janeway had far more encounters with the Borg than she ever wanted, and the prospect of the Borg disappearing from reality hardly filled her with a sense of loss. "I can't say the galaxy would miss them." 

He folded his arms and replied, "Actually it would. The Borg have a massive presence in our galaxy, and throughout history. They have existed for hundreds of thousands of years, and either directly or indirectly have influenced everyone. It could be like erasing Europe from ever existing. The changes would be massive, and having run multiple projections the changes are not as favourable as you might expect." 

She groaned to herself, "Fine, fine, so we have to save the Borg. What do I have to do with it? I don't even remember anything about this Annorax."

"But you do know a lot about the Borg, and another Janeway knows a lot about Annorax. I plan to beam out the Janeway from the now erased timeline just before she died, and merge her with you. You will then have access to her memories."

She place her hands on her hips. She had heard some crazy ideas but this was near the top of the lists. "I'm sorry what?"

"I know this sounds a little strange."

"No, no, it makes perfect sense so far. Please continue, you were just about to merge me with my alternate dead self," she replied, sarcastically at Ducane. 

"I have missed that sardonic tone. You won't feel a thing. You will just remember an extra series of events, like having watched two entirely different holodeck programs with the same characters," he said, trying to ease her mind. It was a lot more complicated that he made out, but he didn't want to put her off knowing her distrust of time travel.

"And once the mission, what ever it is, is over, what then?"

"The memories will be extracted and you'll return to your life. Don't worry, Captain, we do this all the time." He smiled trying to look reassuring. Janeway didn't look convinced.

"I feel better already. What exactly is it that you need me to do?"

"Destroy his weapon ship."

"Why can't you do it?"

"It exists outside of time, we can't get to it unless he lowers his shields. The Krenim are masters of temporal science. Don't let the seven centuries gap fool you. Our technology is no more sophisticated than his," he replied despondently, "and to answer your next question, we can't stop him before he builds it because once he activated it he no longer exists in the timeline. He's now protected from timeline changes."

Janeway's headache was getting worse. "Okay, enough, just give me the headlines. How do I destroy it?"

"We will take the ship to the Delta Quadrant after he has constructed it at his last recorded location, hopefully with your alternate memories we can devise a solution. Diplomatically if possible, but you have full authority to do whatever needs to me done."

She nodded, "Understood."

"He stood up, "Please step onto the pad, and I'll integrate you together with the other Janeway." he said, his hand pointing towards the pad.

She took a deep breath, and reluctantly stepped onto the pad. Ducane returned to his console and activated the temporal transporter. A shimmer of light appeared beside her as a tired and scarred Janeway emerged on the pad. _'What the hell had that woman been through?'_ she thought as they locked eyes for the briefest of moments before a second beam of light enveloped her and the two merged. After it was complete she did not feel any different, but she remembered things. The ship being severely damaged, Tuvok going blind, the injures to her face, Chakotay and Tom were missing, and Annorax. She remembered it all.

"Here," he said, handing her a PADD. All the data we have collected on Annorax, his wife and what history recorded. I'm afraid it's not much. After his wife was assimilated he returned to his homeworld for a few years, then disappeared, presumed killed.

She gathered her thoughts and turned back to Ducane. "It will have to do. I'm ready, lead on, Captain."

He stood up and offered her his chair. "No, it's your mission, Admiral. And you do outrank me, five hundred years difference or not."

She accepted the offer and sat down. "Take us to the Delta Quadrant," she ordered. It felt good to be back in the captain's chair.

The deflector of the ship began to charge and let out a chroniton pulse upon reaching critical power. A spiral vortex formed directly in front of them. Waves of blues and purples that merged together like a whirlpool erupted in space and the _U.S.S. Relativity _slipped into it out of the 29th century, back to the homeworld of the Krenim of the 22nd century. In orbit of a brown and green pearl in space, was a large shipyard. it was a sphere with several large portals around its shell. Out of one of the portals emerged a massive elongated vessel. Its hull was grey, with glowing purple components along the super structure. A central sphere with six prongs situated at the front like a focusing lens. Inward facing prongs were at the rear, likely housing defensive weapons.

"The central core is extremely weak. This is not a ship designed for traditional combat. But we have to get those shields down."

"We may have to get inside to manually deactivate the shields," replied a tactical officer.

Janeway tapped into her new memories. "The last time we met he took two of my crew when he realised we had temporal shields. He may do the same here."

"Sir, we are being hailed," came a voice from behind her of a young ensign.

"I prefer captain," she replied, her mind briefly wandering back to her first day with Ensign Kim. "On screen."

The image of Annorax appeared on the holographic display. His eyes were filled with pain and revenge. The memory of a man she had never met told her to be careful, that he could not be trusted. Yet another side of her voiced compassion to a man who had lost his wide. This was not the same person who had spent two hundred years in maddening pursuit of perfection.

"Identify yourself," he said, in a deep and stern voice.

She rose to her feet. "My name is Admiral Janeway. We've met before, in a different timeline."

He looked at her intently. He was certainly not expecting this turn of events. "I will have to take your word for that as I have no knowledge of it. What is it that you want?"

"We know of your plan to erase the Borg from history. I am afraid I can't let you do that."

"This is not your business." he said, dismissively. 

"Unravelling history is my business when it affects the people I care about."

"Do the Borg mean that much to you?" a hint of unguarded anger crept into his voice.

"No, in fact they are mortal enemies of my people, but their influence stretches across the galaxy. By removing them, you will change all of history, including yours."

"Changing history is my goal. I fully expect to have to make some counter adjustments afterwards."

"There may be another way to rescue your wife," she said, offering a different way, "I have extensive experiencing freeing drones from the collective."

"She was assimilated two years ago. She could be anywhere. No this is the only way."

"You've been here before, Annorax," said Ducane. "The last time you changed history you yourself were the one to erase the colony at Kyana Prime. You spent hundreds of years trying to undo the damage you caused. It was Janeway who destroyed your temporal ship and ironically gave back you back your wife."

"I have no memory of this, but even if what you say is true, what does it matter? I have lost her again. It seems time has a vendetta against me"

Ducane felt this was getting them nowhere and Annorax was on his way to becoming the man he had been before. Arrogant and single minded. He tried one last desperate attempt at conniving him. "By going down this path you may lose more than you expect. What if your entire people are erased? How many will you sacrifice to bring them back?"

It made him stop to ponder his words but ultimately he disregarded her warnings, "With my time ship I can control the fate of worlds, species, even atoms. I have all the time in the universe."

"We can't let you do this." said Ducane, resolutely.

Annorax raised his closed fist to his mouth and leaned into it. He was a man of science. He did not want to harm anyone. "Please understand that I mean you no ill will. I have nothing against you, but I will not allow you to interfere in my task."

A sudden inspiration hit Janeway. "Please. Give me one moment before you do anything. Screen off." she ordered before turning to Ducane. I have a plan. She explained what she wanted to the captain, and her justifications. He looked on with increasing alarm.

"That's not exactly standard procedure."

"I think it can work, and it won't affect the timeline. This is not the Annorax driven mad by two centuries of failure. I think we can still negotiate with him."

He tapped away at his console as he looked over the data he had available, and reluctantly was forced to agree.

Annorax was busy scanning the strange ship in front of him and realising it and temporal shields. He would have to neutralise them before disabling their vessel. He did not want to harm anyone unnecessarily, but there was no one in the universe that would stop from him from saving his beloved wife, Shianna. His concentration was broken by receiving a hail from the ship in front of him. He ordered the screen on and the image staring back shocked him to his core. He began to tremble at the sight of the woman in front of him.

"Hello Annorax," said the woman, in a loving voice..

"Shianna." he replied, barely able to get her name out of his mouth, "how is this possible?"

Janeway appeared next to her. "History records that she went missing when the Borg attacked, assumed assimilated. After returning home, which you have done, you too went missing and presumed dead. We beamed her out from just before the attack. I propose you two leave this time and return with us to the 29th century. Live out your life in peace without making any further changes to our history." 

"That would mean leaving our home, and the life we have built behind." he said, trying to arrange his jumbled thoughts.

"It would," replied Ducane, "but trust me if you aim for perfection you risk turning the galaxy upside down. You've been down this path before, please, don't go down it again."

Janeway tried to sound as reassuring a she could, "This is as good an offer as it gets. It aligns with history and no one gets hurt."

"Listen to them my darling. Be with me, now." Shianna pleaded.

He sat in silence mulling over their words. He knew that he could do it. Save his wife and protect his people. It just required a precise enough temporal incursion. It would take time, but it was doable. He could be with his wife but still in his home, not some far away time period. He could do it. He looked back up at his wife and saw her smiling gently at him, and his resolve broke. "Perhaps you are right. When time offers you an opportunity you don't ignore it."

Janeway let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Lower your shields," Ducane ordered, "we will beam you aboard. I suggest you crew return to the shipyard and dismantle the ship. It can never be used."

"As you wish," he conceded. "I will see you shortly, my love."

Once he had beamed over and was reunited with Shianna, the ship and its new passengers returned to the 29th century.

Ducane looked over the timeline with amazement. "Impressive, I have to say Admiral that was an ingenious use of time travel minutiae. Whether removing them was always part of history or just taking advantage their vague historical fates, there are no anomalies, the weapon ship was never used again, and we have two very happy people ready to start their new life away from history. I could not have done better myself."

"I am relived."

You know despite your distaste for time travel anomalies, you are very good at resolving them. I think you may have been born in the wrong century. We could certainly use you."

She shook her head dramatically. "Oh no, the future will just have to survive without me. Now if you could return my to my office, I have a lunch date I'm five hundred years late for."

"Of course. It was good to work with you again. Perhaps we will meet again... sometime."

She stepped onto the pad, "Well you know what they say, 'don't call me, I'll call you'," she said with a wink, as she was transported back in time.


End file.
